UK-based clinical communications app Pando will be working with the British Army to keep deployed medical staff from the Defence Medical Services connected whilst in the field. 

The app was designed by NHS clinicians and is used to speed up communications in healthcare settings.

For deployed medics, the app connects them to their seniors and specialists in the UK. This enables them to seek advice on the best course of action, such as whether someone needs to be evacuated by helicopter. 

WHY IT MATTERS

Pando enables the secure and rapid exchange of X-Rays and guidance to ensure orthopaedic injuries get treatment in an appropriate time frame.

The medics also use the app to communicate about a range of other medical needs, depending on the situation. 

The Defence Consultant Advisor in Orthopaedics team provides advice for medics treating injured personnel for whom evacuation may take some time.

This connectivity aims to ensure an appropriate standard of care can be delivered in deployed settings.

The trial of Pando is part of Project LARA, an initiative to develop a suite of telemedicine capabilities to reduce the medical risk associated with the challenging nature of many military deployments.

THE LARGER CONTEXT

Pando was recently announced as part of the NHSX Clinical Communications Procurement Framework. This framework is designed to accelerate the phasing out of pages and drive up tech-enabled connectivity across the NHS. 

It is already used by 60,000 NHS staff across 300 UK hospitals. The app is now live in 50 countries and over 120,000 messages were shared on the app by deployed medical staff over the last six months.

ON THE RECORD

Lieutenant colonel Richard Booker, army general practitioner and leading the Army trial of Pando said: “Faster access to specialist advice for deployed personnel through Pando is improving healthcare quality, hastening medical evacuation for those who need it, and enabling others to be treated closer to the point of injury or illness, so they can safely continue their vital work on behalf of the nation.”

Philip Mundy, co-founder and co-CEO of Pando, said: “It’s been an honour to work with the Defence Medical Services on this project. Connecting clinicians creates better healthcare. We’ve seen that throughout the NHS when teams ditch pagers and WhatsApp to embrace Pando instead. And, over the last 6 months, we’ve seen that across the world thanks to this project. We’re delighted to see Pando supporting our deployed medics with all manner of clinical situations and bringing gold standard care to every medical situation.”